Changes to College Board’s AP Physics program will result in a major shift in the Rockwood physics curriculum for 2014-2015.

Beginning next year, the curriculum of the current AP Physics class, AP Physics B, will be split over two years into AP Physics 1 and AP Physics 2. AP Physics 1 will replace regular physics and will not include a zero hour. AP Advanced Physics, the highest level, will still be offered.

Deborah Davis, director of College Readiness Communications for College Board, said conversations about changing the program began in 2002 after the National Research Council (NRC) released the results of a two-year study of AP math and science programs.

“While it commended the AP and IB programs for aspiring to raise the level of mathematics and science education, it concluded that these programs’ efforts to emphasize the key concepts in each field are compromised by covering too many topics in each course,” Davis said.

The new courses will feature newly designed AP exams that Davis said will reduce multiple choice and free response questions and will contain an experimental design question to test students’ practical skills.

Phil Schmidt will teach AP Advanced Physics, AP Physics 2 and sections of the AP Physics 1 course at MHS. He said teachers learned about the changes last February and began curriculum discussions.

“We had to change something because the College Board changed AP Physics B, which has been our main AP Physics course that’s been taught for many years,” Schmidt said.

Schmidt said the content covered in AP Physics 1 is less than would normally be covered in regular physics, so regular physics will no longer be offered.

“We didn’t want a physics class in Rockwood that was a lower level than what the College Board says is AP Physics 1,” he said.

Schmidt said the change will allow students to gain a deeper understanding of the topics and will include nearly the same content.

“The AP Physics B course that’s being replaced with AP Physics 1 and 2 has always had way too much content in it,” Schmidt said. “We’re always struggling to get through all the material and especially rushing a lot at the end with a lot of the final material.”

Abby Watson, junior, is taking AP Physics B and said the change will be beneficial for future physics students.

“Coming as a senior, I took AP Bio last year and then I haven’t taken chemistry since sophomore year,” Watson said. “I was really confused kind of starting to go into it, so the fact that it’s breaking up the classes is going to make it a lot easier for you to understand the concepts.”

James Lewis currently teaches regular physics and will split AP Physics 1 classes with Schmidt next year. He said AP Physics 1 will offer a better understanding to students who might have taken regular. He also said enrollment in the physics program may decline with the first year of the new format but will hopefully go back up once the change is established.

“People don’t like change, so I think once we get it established that it’s going to be an improvement,” Lewis said.

Jim Jung, junior, said some students may fear the class since its only offered as an AP.

“They’re going to need to really explain it well because I feel like there’s a lot of confusion on it,” Jung said. “Some of the people that are in regular physics now, I feel like if it was AP they would shy away from it just because it’s a regular science class so obviously it’s going to be perceived as easier.”